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Mailbag Response Time!

Got some
great e-mail regarding my mailbag, and I thank everybody for taking the time to
write and tell me their feelings. Most, not surprisingly, didn't necessarily
agree with me and my thought that Mick Cronin deserved another year. And that's
OK. I'm just happy to have the dialogue.

But let
me take one e-mail from the pile, because it makes some interesting points.
Bear with me because Craig spent some time on this bad boy and put together a
fair amount of research for it. I, once again, edited parts of it for length
but tried to stay true to the original intent of the e-mail.

From
Craig:

Four
years ago, when people were talking about a five-year rebuilding process for
Mick Cronin at UC, I thought it was too conservative and I still think it is.
For a traditional basketball program that has continued to have success in
modern times (the past 10-15 years), more should be expected of Mick by this
point in his tenure at UC. To help validate my argument, here are Mick's
results compared to those of other coaches at traditional NCAA basketball
programs that have had similar success to UC in modern times and have been on
the job for a comparable amount of time as Mick. All of these coaches came in
after losing seasons (with the exception of Tom Crean at Indiana) and without a stocked cupboard of
talent, similar to Mick. In some cases, the program was facing NCAA violation
issues that certainly could have affected recruiting and the rebuilding
process.

Mick
Cronin, University
of Cincinnati

Previous
team record in 2005-2006: 21-13, NIT

2006-2007:
11-19 (2-14 Big East)

2007-2008:
13-19 (8-10), CBI 1st Round

2008-2009:
18-14 (8-10)

2009-2010
(current): 14-9 (5-6)

John
Beilein, University
of Michigan

Previous
team record in 2006-2007: 22-13

2007-2008:
10-22 (5-13 Big Ten)

2008-2009:
21-14 (9-9), NCAA 2nd
Round

2009-2010
(current): 11-11 (4-6)

Thad Matta, Ohio State University

Previous
team record in 2003-2004: 14-16 (6-10)

Previous
coach, Jim O'Brien, fired over alleged NCAA violations. Matta was hired when
team was potentially facing probation (and eventually was ineligible for post
season his first year)

NOTE:
Matt Painter was hired as the Associate Head Coach under Gene Keady for the
2004-2005 season to help with the coaching transition. If one would wanted to
treat this as his "first" year when comparing to Mick, then consider his team's
performance in 2007-2008 as his fourth year. The improvement in that time frame
is still significantly better than Cronin's.

Bruce
Pearl, University
of Tennessee

Previous
team record in 2004-2005: 14-17 (6-10)

Coaching
record:

2005-2006:
22-8 (12-4 SEC), NCAA 2nd Round

2006-2007:
24-11 (10-6), NCAA Sweet 16

2007-2008:
31-5 (14-2), SEC Champs, NCAA Sweet 16

2008-2009:
21-13 (10-6) NCAA 1st Round

2009-2010
(current): 18-5 (6-3)

Tom
Crean, IndianaUniversity

Previous
team record in 2007-2008: 25-8 (14-2), NCAA 1st Round

Kelvin
Sampson was fired towards the end of the season due to NCAA violations. Interim
Coach Dan Dakich coached final 7 games. Most of the team left following season.

2008-2009:
6-25 (1-17)

2009-2010
(current): 9-12 (3-6)

Not all
of these coaches are Hall of Famers, but, excluding Tom Crean momentarily, they
all got their teams to 20-win seasons and into the NCAA tournament in within
their first 2 years of being a coach. All of the programs I did list, though,
have a similar basketball tradition and success to that of the Bearcats, and
the UC faithful would be much more satisfied, or at least look toward the
future in a much more promising manner, if Mick were to turn in performances
similar to any of these guys.

In short,
mark me up for one that does not think Mick deserves year 5.

OK, so
we're going to have to agree to disagree on the conservative estimate that it
would take five years to rebuild. You say it shouldn't take that long; I say
UC's predicament four years ago was similar to a program just reemerging from
an NCAA-sanctioned death penalty. Although others in the national media said
the same thing at the time - I think Mike DeCourcy said it would take about
twice as long as I predicted - this is just argument that's not going to be
settled. We'll leave it there.

I agree
that the Tom Crean analogy is most similar to what Cronin went through. Of
course - and this also goes for the arguments with Matta and Painter - you
can't compare the competition in the Big East and the Big Ten. If UC played in
the Big Ten, where there are like four legit teams this season, the Bearcats
wouldn't be struggling nearly as hard to break the .500 mark in conference
play. Not when you have the likes of Michigan
(there's Beilein struggling), Indiana, Iowa and PennState playing.

I think
that's what lost most here. People forget that the Big East is the strongest conference
in the history of college basketball. Trying to come back from the dead to play
in a league like this is ridiculous. Even the teams that struggle the most in
the league are still pretty good teams. OK, maybe not DePaul or Rutgers, but you get my point. How would St. John's or Seton Hall fare in the Big Ten?
I'm betting they'd be better than the 3-8 and 4-7 records, respectively, those
teams are displaying in the Big East. I'm not saying that Matta and Painter
haven't done nice jobs with really good players - I would argue Craig's point
that their cupboards were bare when they took over - but they also weren't
competing in the same league against Rick Pitino and Jim Calhoun and Jim
Boeheim and Jamie Dixon and so on and so on.

As for
Bruce Pearl: yes, Tennessee was down after Buzz Petersen left, but to me, you can't really compare his situation to Mick's. Yes, a couple of top
recruits had transferred out after Pearl
was hired, but it's not like the program was decimated. He still had Chris
Lofton and C.J. Watson and Major Wingate - guys who were pretty good to
legitimately great players. The Bearcats had Deonta Vaughn, a freshman. And
that's about it.

But
there's one program Craig didn't mention: Baylor and coach Scott Drew. Most of
Dave Bliss' player had transferred out before Drew was hired in August of 2003
after that humongous scandal, but since then, Drew has done a remarkable job
bringing this program back from the brink of irrelevance. Here's his record through his first four seasons:

2003-04/8-21/3-13
Big 12

2004-05/9-19/1-15

2005-06/4-13/4-12

2006-07/15-16/4-12

And in
his fifth year, the same number I'm saying Mick should get? The Bears went
21-11 and made the NCAA tournament.